Hints

Links to sites with advice on packing gear and riding safely.Whenever you go off touring by bike you can gain valuable knowledge from club members and from various sites through the internet.This area has links to a handful of sites we think are worthwhile visiting. If you know of others contact the webmaster.

Helpful Hint No 1.

How do you calculate gear inches? How do you adjust the deraylyer — …deraller —…derai— you know – the thingy hooked on the back of your frame that makes your hands all greasy when your chain comes off.To tap into Sheldon Brown’s brain for the answers to these questions, and much more that you have never even thought of asking, just click on his crash helmet.Sheldon is bound to have your answers.

Maybe you are not even in New Zealand. If so, you should click on the fern.The Virtual New Zealand site will show you why you should be packing your panniers NOW!!(But check out the rest of our pages first – sometimes VNZ takes a while to load. They think the wait’s worth while. So do I.) Also, have a look at Lonely Planet’s thoughts on New Zealand, and Jan Boonstra’s site to see what he discovered while cycling here in 1997.

Helpful Hint No 4.

Kennett Brothers’ book “Classic New Zealand Cycle Trails” was published on 1 November, 2012 and updated in its 3rd edition in November 2015. Now includes details for ‘Tour Aotearoa’, a mountainbike ride from Cape Reinga to the Bluff with minimal use of sealed public roads. Check it out.

Helpful Hint No 5.

If you are coming to New Zealand and don’t know where to start have a look at